Blessings Of Motherhood Give Abundant Joy

Religion - From the pulpit

May 8, 1992

Who can describe the blessings, the joys and the challenges that motherhood holds? Blessings such as the delight of a healthy newborn placed in her reaching arms; the urgent wonder in a child's voice as he rushes in to say, ''Mom, come see the pretty sunset!'' sharing the excitement of the long-awaited first day of school, and following with tearful eyes as the school bus door closes one world and opens another. Then a mother reflects, ''Have I prepared my child to meet the daily challenges awaiting him?''

The years pass swiftly and the challenges of motherhood grow. Yet, throughout those growing years, mothers face the challenge of providing a listening ear and sometimes a soft shoulder. At the start of each day, her prayer asks for wisdom. She shares the frustrations of a difficult day in school, the injustice of being misunderstood, or how to help her child face, in a godly way, the demands of peer pressure. She ponders the goal of establishing in her child the sense of purpose and principle that will give him the courage to stand like Daniel.

The law of sowing and reaping affects all aspects of life. How true this is of motherhood. How far-reaching are the effects of the attitudes of a mother - the happiness of our homes is at stake, and even our eternal destiny.

Ezekiel 16:44 says, ''As is the mother, so is her daughter.'' If the mother sows a hurried, preoccupied atmosphere in the kitchen, will she not reap a distant relationship with her daughter? And if she allows herself to sow permissiveness, will she not reap a teen-ager without conviction - a teen-ager who has frustrations and a lack of direction? Then there are the persistent seeds of harshness and impatience. Could the reaping be found in calloused children with an insensitivity to the misfortune of those around them?

We all admire seeing a happy family cheerfully working, playing and enjoying each other together. They are interested in others and give of their time unselfishly. Those children, in turn, create happy homes and the church and community reap an abundance of blessings. However, these blessings do not come of themselves or without facing up to the challenge.

Mothers, may you sow seeds of godliness, prayerfulness, submission, kindness and respect so it may be said of you, ''Her children arise and call her blessed; Her husband also, and he praises her.'' (Proverbs 31:2)